Source: Deposit Photos / simonapilolla.
There have been a number of stories recently about “age cliffs,” and I thought it might make an interesting discussion here. Do you believe that one ages in fits and spurts — does it feel true to you? If you’ve past one (or more) of the age cliffs, what do you wish you had known ahead of time?
In the past, we’ve discussed how to age well, how different Corporette writers are dealing with graying hair, “aging intentionally” with Botox, Dysport and more, and other general topics, such as how not to look dowdy at work and how to feel comfortable in your own skin.
The Concept of Nonlinear Aging
There’s a fascinating recent story in The Cut about millennials facing the first age cliff at 44, with interviews (and pictures) of lots of different 44 year olds. (Alas, I cannot find a gift link for it.) They explain the concept well:
While people were no longer rolling over the hill at 40, the new received wisdom said I’d soon be arriving at something more extreme: the cliff. The term entered the lexicon last year with Miranda July’s novel All Fours — which featured a diagram of the abrupt nosedive women’s hormones take sometime in our fourth decade — and the concept was expanded and reinforced by the publication that August of a widely discussed “nonlinear aging” study from Stanford. That research seemed to confirm something we already sort of knew: There are certain years in life when aging hits us hard and moves us forward at hyperspeed. Forty-four, according to the study, is the first of those years. Sixty is the next, and there may yet be more cliffs to be discovered. The Stanford scientists found these transition points by examining the markers of cellular aging in roughly 100 people between the ages of 25 and 75. Over the course of the study’s 12-year duration, they discovered these markers became increasingly dysregulated in bursts around certain ages. At first, they were skeptical that 44 was a true aberration, thinking that perimenopausal symptoms must be skewing their results. But when they broke the data out by sex, they found that men were experiencing the same key changes women were: increased risk of cardiovascular disease and reduced ability to metabolize fat, alcohol, and caffeine.
I saw a further study recently from the more technical Nature, and specifically (thanks, Facebook!) was interested in this chart, showing different “epochs” that mark eras of major topological change in the brain functioning. They roughly delineated the epochs by age: 0-9 is the first epoch, 9-32 is the second epoch, 32-66 is the third epoch, 66-83 is the fourth, and 83-90 is the fifth. You can read the entire study here, or here’s a (cough) easier read on the study from NBC News.
My $.02 on Nonlinear Aging
I was fascinated by all of this because, as someone past the age 44 cliff, I absolutely think there’s been a difference. I feel like I look markedly older in pictures taken when I was 46, than I did in pictures at 42. I feel like my body is much more… sensitive to small slights. (For example, I can sit cross-legged quite comfortably for an hour or more, but once I stand up my hips absolutely hate me for the next three days.) Physically, the phrase “use it or lose it” has been echoing in my head.
Mentally… I definitely feel older mentally, although I suppose the two studies contradict themselves a bit there. The Stanford study says 44 is a cliff, while the Nature study says my brain won’t hit a new epoch until age 66. I have a lot of trouble procrastinating, focusing, and generally getting things done.
(The capsule wardrobe project I’ve been working on forEVER for Corporette is definitely coming 1Q26! I’m right on top of it, Rose!)
I also have problems with generally being much more tired. But all of that could also be explained by perimenopause, or I’ve also heard that some people say that could be an aftermath of a Covid infection. Whee.
(We’ve talked here on the blog about what to do if you feel exhausted all the time, ways to improve your focus, how to eat for energy, and the fine line between “procrastinating and relaxing.” We’ve also discussed how to combat the afternoon slump!)
I was especially interested in the part in the Cut article where the author interviews Kim France, formerly of Lucky magazine and now from the podcast Everything is Fine, and the Substack, Girls of a Certain Age.
France wanted to reassure me that life is better for her now than it was in her 40s or even her 50s. Part of the reason, she said, is that she no longer feels “like an old person trying to be young.” She’d crossed over, she said, to being “a young old person. I’m in the freshman class.” More profoundly, she told me, a great equalizing has taken place: Most of her contemporaries have experienced life’s harshest realities. “If you get to be my age,” she said, “pretty much everyone has kind of walked through the fiery valley at least once. Something terrible has happened to them, something traumatic, something they had to get over. And when you’re 44, that’s not true. There’s something to being an age where you’ve come out the other end of all the drama that gets stirred up in your 40s.”
This is really interesting, and I absolutely see what she’s talking about… right now some of my friends have “walked through the fiery valley at least once,” but in ten years it’s much easier to see how we almost all will have gone through hell.
I don’t know, readers — what are your thoughts? How old are you, and do you feel like certain ages “hit” harder than others?
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